The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to catheter devices and, more specifically, to an ablation catheter including an extended fluid lumen.
Catheters are flexible, tubular devices that are widely used by physicians performing medical procedures to gain access into interior regions of the body. Catheters with one or more electrodes are generally known in the surgical art. For example, electrode catheters can be and/or are used for electrically mapping a body part and/or delivering therapy to a body part.
Known ablation catheters include a main catheter body having a distal end and an ablation electrode coupled to the distal end of the main catheter body. Some known ablation catheters include an irrigation system to provide irrigation fluid to cool the ablation electrode. In at least some known catheter configurations, the irrigation fluid does not cool the ablation electrode substantially uniformly, and the irrigation fluid does not completely surround the ablation electrode.
Furthermore, known irrigated ablation catheters do not provide more irrigation fluid to the part of the ablation electrode that is in contact with the tissue material being ablated, and less irrigation fluid to the part of the ablation electrode that is not in contact with the tissue material.